


In Which Human-Mermaid Politics Aren't Quite What You Expect

by phoenixyfriend



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Deep-Sea Serpent Galra, Hunk and Pidge's relationship is ambiguous it can be pretty much whatever you want, Interspecies Relationship(s), Keith is still half, M/M, Mermaid Matt, Not the AU you were expecting probably, Sea Serpent Alteans, Technically they're sea serpent mers?, Worldbuilding, mermaid Pidge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 22:43:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13110033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixyfriend/pseuds/phoenixyfriend
Summary: Under a mile and a half of crushing ocean water, held away from his pretty little human head by nothing but sheer human ingenuity, Shiro waits to hear back about the latest survey team's return to base.





	In Which Human-Mermaid Politics Aren't Quite What You Expect

**Author's Note:**

> Ryou = Kuron

Sometimes, when he was eating lunch in the commissary or trying to beat his own lifting record in the gym, Shiro could almost forget that he was currently living a mile and a half underwater.

This was not one of those times.

Shiro leaned his head back, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, focusing on the sensation before he opened his eyes again and looked out of the massive glass bubble that kept him separate from the murderous pressure of the depths. The glass didn’t look as thick as it was, and this area was just for casual observation anyway, as made obvious by the wooden benches and bean bag chairs and lack of serious equipment. There were even lights shining out into the dark, down here where the sun didn’t reach and where the fish that crossed the electric lights were strange and alien.

“Why do you do this to yourself?”

Shiro turned to look at Keith, who was leaning against the door with his arms crossed. He probably thought he looked cool, but Shiro had to fight back a smile and the urge to tell Keith that he had a cowlick. Instead, he answered the question.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Or, well, not.

“You’ve told me your breathing gets weird when you think about how deep we are,” Keith said flatly. “No use lying.”

“Is there a reason you’re here?” Shiro asked, crossing his own arms and turning to stand and face Keith fully. He could make it work.

“...The Holts are out of decontamination,” Keith finally said. “So, you know, do your thing.”

Shiro shook his head with a grin and clapped Keith on the shoulder as he left the observation room. “Thanks for telling me. Lance back yet?”

“No,” Keith said, grumbling just a little. “His mission got switched from a three-day to the Bermuda base to a two-week out to the one off of Guam.”

“Ouch,” Shiro said, though it wasn’t that big of a change compared to what it could have been. Had been, in the past. “Everyone else?”

“Do you actually care?”

“Humor me.”

“Hunk’s on his day off, so he’s tinkering with some... _thing_ in his room. Pidge went and found him the second she got out of decontamination, so they’re nerding out together in his room instead of the labs for once. Iverson was pretty happy about that.”

“Alteans?” Shiro asked.

“Allura’s still playing negotiator,” Keith said. “Coran’s translating for Lotor.”

“I thought Lotor decided to learn English to make it go smoother,” Shiro said.

“Not exactly an easy language to learn,” Keith reminded. “Plus... you know the Marmora guys are the only ones from the Mariana trench to ever even _try_ learning a human language before. Kolivan’s been stopping in, but the spines scare everyone.”

“And Lotor’s don’t?”

“Lotor’s _pretty_ ,” Keith reminded him, but couldn’t hold back his own smirk. “You should have seen his face when that one girl from HR, Lucille?”

“I know her.”

“Yeah, she tried to hit on him. The guy didn’t even get a _word_ of it, and he still needs practice with breathing outside of the water for more than a few minutes, so she was flirting through the glass of one of those rolling tanks they’re using to get him around.” Keith shoved his hands into his pockets. “I’d say I feel sorry for one or the other, but...”

“Yeah,” Shiro said. “I get it.”

“Soon he’ll be slithering around like the other serpent mers do, though,” Keith said, like there wasn’t any question about it. “Coran seemed excited to teach him how, actually. I think they’re treating it as kind of like physical therapy? Though from what Allura says, Lotor insists on calling it training because it’s not from an injury or illness and then she switched back to Altean while ranting and I still can’t distinguish all the hissing.”

“Was it on purpose?” Shiro asked.

“It’s _always_ on purpose,” Keith groaned. “She just wants to curse and talk shit without human command getting on her case about it.”

“Don’t some of them know Altean by now?”

“Not at _her_ speed,” Keith said, and then grinned like he knew something Shiro didn’t.

Shiro pointedly did not ask.

“And Ryou was looking for you,” Keith added.

“That’s a lie and you know it.”

“You wouldn’t know if he was looking for you, Shiro.”

“Twin magic.”

“You don’t have twin magic.”

“Is this just because my darling brother is a result of a cloning experiment? For shame, Keith. I thought we were past this. I’m _not_ replacing you as a brother, just a—”

And then Shiro got slapped in the face by a fin that was still vaguely damp.

Shiro’s eyes were closed instinctively after that, and he _kept_ them closed as he stepped back and away. He took a deep breath, slowly let it out, and then opened his eyes.

Brown scales met his eyes.

He looked up, and up, and saw Matt’s cheerfully grinning face.

“What are you doing?” Shiro asked, just a little tired.

“Going to the tech labs,” Matt said, still grinning.

“Using the monkey bars,” Shiro said, staring pointedly at where Matt was, in fact, hanging from the bars on the ceiling that saw more use as toys than as transportation these days.

“Yeh.”

“...Matt, I know for a fact that there are water tunnels going all the way out to the tech labs,” Shiro said.

“Can’t go into the labs wet!” Matt said cheerfully, eyes closing as he smiled a little wider.

“Which is why we have the mer-sized drying fans and the wheelchairs,” Keith said flatly.

“Counterpoint,” Matt said, swinging back and forth a little. “ _These_ are more fun.”

“And what happens if your arms get tired?” Shiro asked. “The fall wouldn’t hurt a human, but your tail doesn’t exactly have the support to keep you from spraining something if you slipped. There’s a _reason_ we phased these out, Matt.”

“Well, that’s what a big, strong human is for, right?” Matt said, swinging forward to tap Shiro on the chest with his tail.

Shiro blinked at him, unimpressed.

“Fine,” Matt said, sighing. “I was planning on keeping this a secret, but—”

“Oh God, no,” Keith said immediately, blanching.

Matt and Shiro both shot him looks.

“I’ve heard that line enough from Pidge to know what it means from a Holt,” Keith said. “Whatever it is is probably going to blow up in our faces and get us all sent to medical.”

“Rude,” Matt said. “Besides, it’s not _that_ bad.”

Keith narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms, trying to look intimidating again.

“You have a cowlick,” Shiro said, unable to help himself this time. Then, because messing with Keith was much more fun than he usually let on, Shiro licked the thumb on his still-human hand and reached for Keith’s hair. “Here, let me fix it.”

“No, wh—no!” Keith said, lurching out of the way and then darting around to the other side of Matt’s tail. “Shiro!”

“Get back here, Keith!” Shiro called, a grin on his own face. He didn’t exactly try his hardest to grab Keith, but that was the fun of it.

Keith ended up dodging one grab right in the direction of Matt.

Who fell.

For a moment, Shiro’s stomach dropped too. Then his stomach paused and twisted and got very confused as Matt started floating halfway to the ground.

“What,” Keith said.

“It didn’t explode!” Matt said, twisting at a rather odd angle. “Um. I can’t actually control which direction I’m aimed in yet. Air is a lot harder to maneuver around in than water. Help?”

“Was there a _chance_ this could explode?” Keith demanded.

Matt made a face as Shiro reached up and offered an arm for Matt to lever himself around with. “Not really. Worst that would have happened was a couple of sparks and it not working, in which case I’d be more concerned about the tail bruising than the tiny burns, you know?”

“Why not use these to just pull yourself all the way down to the labs?” Keith asked.

“Batteries only last a few minutes right now,” Matt admitted. “Can’t hold up my weight for longer than that, so I’m using them as an emergency measure.”

“You deve—” Shiro tried, but his voice failed him. He coughed and tried again, and even then his voice was cracked and dry and utterly disbelieving. “You developed _antigrav devices?”_

“Yep!” Matt confirmed, pulling himself closer to Shiro and then pushing himself up towards the bars again. “Pidge helped.”

There was a clicking noise, and Matt’s body fell slack again, held up by his hands on the bars and nothing else.

“You made _antigrav?_ ” Shiro repeated. “Oh my god. Oh my _god_. Portable antigrav.”

“The higher-ups are gonna be pissed,” Matt mused, though the grin on his face made it clear that he’d known for a while and didn’t care.

“Yeah?” Keith prompted, since Shiro was still caught in a loop because _functioning antigrav._

“I made a new, fascinating technology,” Matt said. “And the first thing I used it for was assistive technology instead of, you know, cargo transport or something.”

“I mean...” Keith trailed off, shrugging. “Given the number of mers in on these projects, it does make sense to go for that first, especially since _you’re_ mer. And you know they put a lot of money into prostheses, considering Shiro’s arm, at least, so... they probably won’t take it that badly.”

“...I was making a joke,” Matt said, “But yeah, you’re right.”

“You should patent it,” Keith said. “Then you can make sure that when somebody starts mass producing it to sell as assistive tech for humans in wheelchairs and mer that want to work in human spaces, you can influence the price.”

“There are _so_ many applications for this tech,” Matt said. “But that’s where I want to start. And then hoverboards.”

“What?”

“Like skateboarding, but you’re flying!”

Shiro buried his face in his hands.

“Shiroooooo,” Matt whined.

He started lightly slapping Shiro’s hands with his tail, which really meant he was repeatedly papping Shiro’s face with his fin.

“ _Shiroooooooooo_ ,” Matt whined again, a little louder.

“What?” Shiro asked, looking up and dropping his hands. He got slapped again before Matt managed to stop himself.

“Oops!” Matt laughed. “No, but seriously.”

“What?” Shiro repeated.

“Kiss me.”

“And this is where I ditch you guys,” Keith announced. “Have fun being gross.”

“Like you and Lance and Allura,” Matt said immediately, and then snickered at the look on Keith’s face. “Hey, when’s the last time those gills saw some water?”

Keith’s hand came up to cup over the place where the gills were, hidden under his shirt collar even though pretty much everyone on base knew his mom had come from the Galra in the Mariana Trench, back when the Marmora had first tried to see what humans were like.

“Keith,” Shiro said, momentarily distracted by the fact that Keith was avoiding, of all things, _this_ kind of training. “You’re supposed to practice.”

“I’ll get crushed by the depth here, and the pool water is _gross_ ,” Keith said. “Matt, back me up. I don’t want that stuff in my gills.”

“It _is_ gross,” Matt agreed. “Yucky, even. Still, you need to practice. Orders from above or whatever, right?”

Keith didn’t answer, just glared at them both and stalked off down the hall, the metal inserts in the soles, same as all the latest generation of Garrison-issue combat boots, tap-tap-tapping against the linoleum.

“So...” Matt said as Keith left their immediate view. “Do I get that kiss or not?”

“You’re going to drop into my arms or something?” Shiro asked, quirking one eyebrow.

“Actually, I was thinking you join me up here,” Matt said, wriggling a little. “Come on, Takashi, kisses!”

“You’re ridiculous,” Shiro said, but hopped up and latched onto the bars, bending his arms just enough to reach Matt’s face and press their lips together. He pulled away with a flat expression. “Good enough?”

Matt wrapped his tail around Shiro and tugged him closer, pouting. “More.”

Shiro rolled his eyes. “We’re at work, Matt. You wanna make out, we’re doing it in private.”

Matt grinned widely, sharp eyeteeth glinting in the light. “I’m down for that.”

“Think you can make it all the way there on the bars?” Shiro asked.

Matt snorted. “I was planning on moving to a chair at the next water tunnels exit.”

“So...”

“Dude, there’s one with wheelchair storage right around the corner,” Matt said, laughing. “I mean, my arms are good, but I’m not going to get all the way to the tech labs on the bars unless it’s absolutely necessary, yeah?”

Shiro snorted and dropped back down to the ground and headed for the exit in question. “You coming?”

The grin he got in answer was all he needed.

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written for a holiday gift exchange. My giftee dropped out, so I'm just posting what I've written (with a few small edits so it fits my sensibilities, since I'm no longer tailoring the piece to someone else).
> 
> I miiiiiight add a bit more about Keith shapeshifting, and the dynamics that crop up between certain characters.


End file.
